Fratello, You Look Good in Green
by pingo1387
Summary: Long story short - the nations are sleeping over at Japan's house and learn of his newest video game. Unfortunately, seven of the nations get much too... CAUGHT UP in the game, you might say. Set in early 1986.
1. Game

**I apologize in advance for the crapiness of the chapter you are about to read. I was not feeling too good when I wrote it...**

* * *

The world meeting of mid-January, 1986, was held in Tokyo, Japan. Another unproductive rendezvous gone by, the nations were putting away papers and chatting amongst themselves. That is, until America came up with an idea, one that he, Canada, Italy, Romano, France, Russia, and Germany would very much regret the next day.

"Hey, guys!" he shouted, catching everyone's attention. "I have a heroic idea! How about we all go to Japan's house and have a New Year's party!"

His suggestion was greeted with silence. Finally England spoke: "That's quite asinine. New Year's Day was two weeks ago."

"…sooo it'll be a little late, big deal!" he turned to Japan. "What d'you say, Japan?"

"…I suppose so—"

"Great! Japan's house in an hour, everyone!" He marched out the door, sticking an arm in the air and pointing with his index finger.

"Are you sure you don't mind, Japan?" asked England.

"No." An ambiguous answer as usual, England noted.

Around them, the nations seemed to be warming up to the idea, saying things like "A party sounds good," and "He may be annoying, but he does come up with a good idea once in a blue moon," and "Who are you?" and "I'm Canada."

* * *

By the time evening came around, nearly every nation was at Japan's house – save for the Nordic five, the ones who lived at Russia's house (except for Russia himself), Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.

After dinner (Japan's supply of food was mysteriously well-stocked, even after the meal), the host called everyone into his sitting room.

"_Minna-sama_," he said, "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind coming into the sitting room? I have a new invention I would like to show you."

When everyone was in the sitting room, Japan turned on his television. Then he pressed a small button on a gray plastic box labeled 'POWER'. The screen flickered from a blue screen to a scene that had the words 'SUPER MARIO BROS.' on the screen, with a pixilated man wearing red below the words '1 PLAYER GAME' and '2 PLAYER GAME'.

"Dude," said America, "what's this?"

"This is the latest video game developed by Miyamoto-_san_. It is called Super Mario Brothers. Allow me to demonstrate." He pressed 'START' on his controller and the screen changed to show the man clothed in red ("This is the protagonist, Mario") below the words 'WORLD 1-1' and next to an 'X 3'. It quickly changed again to show Mario on a brick road. Japan started moving him around and jumping with the + control pad, the A button, and the B button. The nations watched in awe as they were introduced to Bowser, Toad, Goombas, Koopas, Lakitus, and finally, in less than ten minutes, Princess Toadstool.

"There is also a two-player option," Japan pointed out. "Would anyone else like a turn?"

America immediately took the player one controller from Japan while the latter plugged in a second controller. England considered for a moment, and then took it up. As soon as America selected the two player option, it flicked to Mario. America played for a good two minutes before being killed off by a Goomba. He swore loudly. Right after Mario fell off the screen, another identical man (this one clothed in green) appeared with the same amount of lives as Mario.

"This is his brother, Luigi."

"_Fratello_," said Italy, nudging Romano, "did you notice that they're both Italian? Like us! _Fratello_? _Fratello_, did you notice that? _F_-"

"Yes, goddammit, I noticed! Shut up!"

Meanwhile, England died in the exact same place as America did. Both of them continued trying until they lost all of their lives.

Many more nations took turns until England coughed loudly and mentioned that it was getting late and they should probably head back to their respective hotels, inns, etc. But when they looked outside, snow was coming down so quickly and thickly that it would be impossible to navigate in the storm.

"Dude," said America, "that snow's coming down so quickly and thickly that it'd be impossible to navigate!"

Japan hesitated. "I suppose that you may all stay here for the night… at least until the snow stops…"

"Sweet!" America ran to one of Japan's guest bedrooms. Over the past few years, Japan had had building additions installed in his home, so he could now host several guests for overnight stays, if need be. And in this case, that need had arisen.

Things got settled and everyone was soon asleep in the futons Japan had laid out.

* * *

Japan awoke early the next morning, as usual, and decided to start cooking breakfast for everyone, seeing as they would all be quite hungry. He had scarcely cracked the first egg into the bowl when Spain came running into the kitchen.

"Japan!" He exclaimed. "Japan! _Japòn_! There's a problem!"

"_Hai_, what is it, Spain-_san_?"

"Italy and Romano won't wake up!"

* * *

**This will get better, I promise ^^**

**And I am aware that Japan would have the original _Japanese_ version of the game, but I did a google search to find out exactly what it looked like, and there was literally not _one single picture_ of the mario opening screen in Japanese. Sooo English it was.**


	2. Sleeping

Japan and Spain rushed back to where Italy and Romano slept. They seemed completely normal, sleeping peacefully, breathing regularly. But when Japan shook their shoulders, neither of them stirred. There was no reaction whatsoever.

"See? See?" cried Spain slightly hysterically. "They won't wake up!"

"C-Calm yourself, please, Spain-_san_," said Japan, trying to follow his own advice. "We can rouse Germany-_san_ and ask him to help get them up. He was always good at waking Italy up."

"I didn't think of that…"

The two hurried to where Germany was staying, but they found him sleeping as well. Spain frowned. "That's odd. Germany's usually awake by now…"

Japan hesitantly shook his shoulder. "Germany-_san_… Germany-_san_, wake up, please…"

Like Italy and Romano, Germany didn't react to Japan's voice. Spain became hysterical.

"Oh god – they're not waking up – what do we – I don't – _lo que es_ – _alguine ayuda_ –"

"_Gomen_, Spain-_san_," said Japan, slapping his cheeks. Spain stopped talking, blinked, and rubbed his face.

"Sorry, I got carried away."

"We can try to wake up the others," Japan suggested. Spain agreed and they set out to do just that.

In the end, they were able to wake up everyone except for the aforementioned nations, America, Canada, France, and Russia. Gathered in the kitchen, they tried to solve the problem.

"Frankly," stated England, "I'm perfectly fine with the frog not being conscious. It makes for a pleasant morning."

"Be serious!" cried Spain. "There's something wrong and we need to find out what!"

Japan opened his mouth, but as he was about to speak, someone yelled from the living room:

"Come in here-aru! The television's on and it is playing the video game-aru!"

* * *

Italy sleepily blinked his eyes open. Sitting up and yawning, he stretched and said, "_Buon giorno_, _fratello_…"

Looking to his side, he realized that Romano was next to him – but wearing different clothes. Instead of the ones he went to bed in, he was wearing white overalls, a green shirt underneath, and a white hat and gloves. He was sleeping, and for some reason – he had a moustache. A very nice, very Italian moustache.

Italy started freaking out and he leaned over to shake Romano. "_Fratello_! _Fratello_, wake up!"

Romano awoke with a start. "Eh? Goddammit, Veneziano, I was trying to sleep – what the fuck are you wearing."

"Huh?" Italy looked down at himself to find that he was wearing the same thing as Romano – the only difference being that he had a red shirt, and blue overalls. Feeling his upper lip, he found a moustache there as well, just like Romano's.

"_Fratello_, you're wearing almost the same thing…"

"What!?" Romano looked down, felt his moustache, and shrieked. "What the hell is this?"

"Where are we?"

They finally realized that they were not, in fact, in Japan's house, which seemed to have disappeared in order to be replaced by this: A flat brick landscape, a castle behind them, and endless blue sky above. Italy started crying.

"_Fratello_, I'm scared…"

"Don't start crying on me!"

Sniffling, he pointed above them. "W-What's that?"

Above were white shapes, indistinct. Romano backed up in order to get a better look. The shapes, he could now see, were words: The top one read '1 PLAYER GAME' and the bottom '2 PLAYER GAME'. His mouth dropped open.

"Veneziano! I know where we are!"

"Where, _fratello_?"

"We're inside Japan's video game!"

* * *

The nations crowded around the TV screen. All had tried to turn it off, to no avail, so they had settled back and watched the video game play itself. The characters, Mario and Luigi, were moving around, apparently confused.

"_Chotto matte yo_," said Japan suddenly, "Italy-_kun_ and Romano-_kun_ won't wake up. The video game is playing itself… and am I imagining things, or do Mario and Luigi have something on the sides of their heads?"

"Are…" England shook his head. "Are you saying that the Italy brothers are now the Mario brothers? That they're _inside the game_?"

"_Gomen_, it's most likely too far-fetched…"

"No, I think you're on to something. The others that won't wake up… perhaps they have to play inside the game, too."

"But how will they get out-aru?" cried China.

"I guess," said Hungary quietly, "they just have to beat the game."


	3. L1

The conscious nations watched in fascination as the figures on the screen started jumping up, seemingly trying to reach the words that started the game. Japan hopefully pressed the SELECT button on the controller to no effect.

Eventually the characters stopped and faced each other. They seemed to be talking. Soon, they started jumping up and down. Luigi moved on top of Mario…

* * *

"Uwah…" Veneziano struggled under Romano's weight. "_Fratello_, you're heavy…"

"Just a little more, Veneziano…"

Romano was attempting to grab onto the words that read 2 PLAYER GAME. After determining that he was the higher jumper of the two, they had decided that he would stand on Veneziano's shoulders and attempt to reach the words.

"Almost…" he grunted. "There…"

He finally made one last spectacular leap and grabbed onto the '2'. Instantly – or almost instantly – their surroundings changed: now they were standing on, well, still a brick ground, still blue sky, still some bushes, but no castle. Ahead lay a cylinder coming up from the ground and floating boxes before it – and something moving towards them…

Veneziano walked up and tapped the first box. There was a dinging sound – it must have been the coin popping out, like they'd seen last night. Meanwhile, the thing continued moving closer.

Romano was behind him. He knelt down and reached out to the thing, saying "Aw! It's so cute!"

Romano gasped and shoved him out of the way, yelling "Stupid _fratello_, look out—"

The thing (they could now see it was some kind of strange mushroom) touched Romano and he vanished. Veneziano fell back from the mushroom and scrambled away, but it kept coming closer. He shrieked and started stomping on the mushroom. The second his sole pressed down on the creature, it sank into the ground.

He smiled, but only briefly, for Romano was still nowhere in sight. He looked around frantically for his brother until he glanced behind him and found Romano kneeling on the ground back where they had started.

"_Fratello_!"

Veneziano ran to him. "_Fratello_, are you okay? What happened?"

Romano looked up at him and started crying. "Veneziano… it was horrible… it…" he buried his face in his brother's shirt and Veneziano patted him on the back. It took Romano about a minute to recover. When he did, he sniffled one last time and muttered "Let's keep going."

Romano studied the next block and tapped it. It simply shattered, the pieces falling to the ground. The next box emitted a strange noise and something fell over the side – a spotted mushroom. Romano shrieked and moved away from it while Veneziano jumped up and stomped.

But instead of shrinking into the ground, the mushroom stopped and laid there. He cautiously picked it up and brought it over to Romano. Now that it had touched him, it had shrunk down to a bite-sized thing. The brothers studied it.

Veneziano shrugged and smiled. "It looks good! Maybe we should eat it!"

"Veneziano—"

But he had already brought the brightly-colored fungus up to his mouth and popped it in, chewed, and swallowed. He blinked and frowned. "_Fratello_, I feel funn—"

It was at that moment that the personification of North Italy grew to a new height of one foot taller than his brother. He looked around in shock and down at Romano.

"_Fratello_!" He cried happily. He petted Romano's head condescendingly. "You're so short and cute now!"

"Get the hell off me! Next time we get one of those things, it's mine, okay?"

"Okay~!"

* * *

The two jumped, ran, and stomped their way through the level. At one point, Veneziano fell into a pipe, upon which they discovered that it was full of money. Exiting, they found themselves facing a pair of evil mushrooms, floating boxes, and a set of block stairs. Stomping the mushrooms, they climbed the stairs and faced a flagpole.

Veneziano looked down at Romano. "Do we have to jump on the pole?"

"I think so…"

"Okay!" Veneziano backed up and leapt for the flagpole. He clung to it, calling "_Fratello_, come on!"

Romano jumped as well, landing just below his brother. They both slid down to the bottom, the flag coming with them. Having nowhere else to go, they went into the tower that lay just beyond the pole…

* * *

"They made it! That's excellent!"

"I hope they'll be able to pass the harder levels…"

"Say, Japan, do you have any more of this Pocky?"


	4. Warp

**Heeey everyone! I'm sorry that this note isn't an actual update, but it's rather important. You see, my computer's down, so I won't be able to type any new chapters for a while. **

**We're getting a new computer, but I don't know how soon it'll be set up, so I can't say how long I'll be gone.**

**So I'm sorry, but no new updates for... at least a week, I guess.**

**Happy holidays!**

* * *

The mustachioed brothers passed through the small tower and came out on a completely blank landscape – blank, except for the dual connected pipes. One rose up from the ground, and another lay on its side. The twins looked at each other and crawled through the one on the ground – well, Veneziano crawled. Romano was small enough to simply walk through.

They had been moving forwards for approximately five seconds when Veneziano said "_Fratello_, how long is this?"

"How the hell should I knAAAAAAAAA!"

"_Fratello_? What is itEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The brothers fell down the hole in the bottom of the pipe, hitting a brick ground hard. Veneziano landed on top of Romano, causing the latter to shout in pain. After getting up and dusting themselves off, they took a look around at their surroundings. It seemed that they were in an underground area with dim light from some unknown source. Currently, two evil mushrooms (made to look blue by the mysterious light) were moving towards them. Romano hurriedly stomped them and approached a few floating boxes. Hitting one, a spotted mushroom came out. He took it and ate it, finally growing to the same height as his brother.

After making their way past small stacks of solid blocks, they came upon a passageway that was too small for them to fit through. As they were trying to figure out how to get by, a turtle came through the passageway, followed by two evil mushrooms. Veneziano looked at the turtle.

"…do you think it's good or bad, Romano?"

"Better stomp it, just in case," said Romano, who was currently hiding behind his brother.

Veneziano stomped it and the turtle immediately curled into its shell. Romano came up to it and kicked it, sending the shell flying into the mushrooms and knocking them into the ground.

"So was it good or bad?"

"It doesn't matter, let's go."

They passed by some pipes, avoiding the strange, chomping flowers that sprouted out. Jumping onto some platforms moving up (and disappearing into the ceiling), Romano moved to the floor level with a pipe, but Veneziano stayed on and jumped off at the last second onto a higher level of bricks.

"Stupid _fratello_, what the hell are you doing!?" Romano glared up at the row of bricks that his brother was currently standing on.

"I think there's something back here!" Footsteps were heard moving beyond the pipe that Romano could see, and a minute later he heard a faint call: "_Fratello_, come here!"

Romano sighed and jumped onto the platform, following his brother. What he found was unexpected: Veneziano was curled over the edge of the brick row, his head hanging down the side and peeking into the bottom. Romano shoved him out of the way and looked for himself. There were three pipes on the ground. The brothers carefully dropped down. The second they did, white words appeared above the pipes. Backing up to get a better view, they saw that the words said 'WELCOME TO THE WARP ZONE!' Above each pipe from right to left was a number from 2 – 4.

"Veneziano…" muttered Romano. "Do you remember when Japan was playing this game yesterday, he entered new grounds that he called different worlds?"

"Yes…" Veneziano's eyes widened. "Wait, is this—"

"Yeah, I think it's to get us to new worlds."

"So which one do we do?"

"Obviously number four! The sooner we get out of here, the better!"

"OK!" Veneziano jumped into the fourth pipe, with his brother following him.

* * *

England stared at Japan. "Would you mind telling us what the 'Warp Zone' is?"

"Ah, _hai_… the Warp Zone is a secret area that can be used to skip to different worlds."

On the screen, Mario and Luigi jumped into the pipe labeled '4'.

"So they just entered World 4?"

"Exactly."

* * *

**If you don't know who Germany is, here's a hint: he'll appear in the next chapter.**


	5. Germany

**Yay! Update! I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while - I've been very procrastinative about it (is that a word? Oh well.) After I catch up on the other updates that I missed, we'll go back to the regular once-a-week schedule!**

* * *

Veneziano and Romano found themselves standing on yet another stretch of brick ground. Romano grumbled something about being uncreative. They moved forward, jumping over another strange pipe-flower, when—

"Eek!" Veneziano jumped back from the weird red thing that had landed on the ground. The thing sprouted four legs, a tiny head, and a spiky turtle-like shell. It started creeping towards them. Romano leapt around his brother and stomped on the thing – but instead of it disappearing, he shrank back to his original height; and the thing just kept on coming. Veneziano grabbed Romano's hand and pulled him up onto the pipe, the pipe-flower apparently hiding from them. They stared at the thing, which had hit the pipe, turned around, and promptly walked straight off the edge of the platform, falling into a bottomless pit.

"What the hell was—"

"Romano! There're more coming!"

"Eh?"

Romano looked up to see more of the strange red creatures raining down on them from… a cloud?

"Veneziano, maybe if we can get away from that cloud, there won't be any more red things!"

"_Andiamo_, _fratello_!"

But as they jumped and danced around the falling creatures, the cloud moved with them, keeping pace and continuing to rain down the red animals.

"Oi, Veneziano!" Romano pointed up at the cloud as they continued to dodge the things. "I think there's someone up there! Maybe he's throwing these things down at us!"

Veneziano squinted. Sure enough, there was a shadowy figure on top of the small cloud. He stopped running and took a breath.

"Heeeeeeey!" he yelled. "Can you stop throwing things at us, _per favore_?"

"Stupid _fratello_, that won't work."

And yet the figure was now tossing the creatures away from the brothers. A familiar voice called out to them:

"_Italien_? Is that you?"

"Eh? What?" Veneziano looked stunned.

The cloud descended upon them, landing right next to Veneziano and Romano. As the person continued to toss creatures away from them all, he said "I can't believe it! You two are here as well? _Mein Gott_, what is going on?"

It was Germany.

* * *

Hungary squinted at the screen. "Is that…"

"_Doitsu-san_?" said Japan incredulously. "_Chotto matte yo_, it seems like they are speaking…"

* * *

"Germany!" cried Veneziano happily. "Yay, you're here!"

"Wait," said Romano angrily. "Why the hell were you throwing things at us!? We could have died, stupid potato bastard!"

Germany seemed a bit sheepish at this. "You see… these things keep sprouting inside this cloud… and if I don't throw them out, they multiply and start to hurt me. So I have to keep throwing them out. When you two appeared… I didn't recognize you, so I thought that it was a kind of target practice. _Es tut mir leid_."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"He's saying sorry, _fratello_! It's okay, Germany!" Veneziano suddenly clasped his hands together eagerly. "Hey, Germany, do you wanna come with us? That way you don't have to be with those weird spiky things!"

Germany attempted to rise out of the cloud, but to no avail. "It seems that I'm stuck here… it's too bad. I would have liked to come with you two."

"Aw… oh well. We'll all get out of here at some point or another!"

"We all?" Germany frowned. "Who else is here?"

The brothers looked at each other. "Um… I don't know. We thought it was just us, but then we met you…"

"…I see," Germany said, tossing red creatures over his shoulder. "Since you two are Mario and Luigi, do you think that if you beat the game, then we may leave this place?"

"…that actually makes sense."

"So we just have to beat the game? Well, we've been doing good so far! I wonder how many more levels we have to do…?"

"Good luck," called Germany. "I'll just stay here and… er, wait, I suppose."

"Thank you, Germany~! Bye~!"

"Chigi! Veneziano, you're bigger than me now!"

"Yay!"

"THIS IS NOT A SITUATION TO CHEER AT!"

* * *

**Poor Romano o_**


	6. Vine

The next level that the Italian brothers found themselves in was at first identical to the second stage they had faced. Both crawled into the pipe and dropped to the underground with a little bit more caution, landing more carefully. Instead of facing evil mushrooms right away, they had to jump across a few bottomless pits to some small platforms – no easy feat in the dim lighting. Veneziano almost fell several times.

They eventually made it across and helped each other up to the higher platform of bricks. Squatting slightly underneath a brick roof, Veneziano (being the only one big enough – and therefore strong enough – to break the bricks) broke some of the bricks apart in order to make room to stomp the evil mushrooms coming their way.

Moving past the mushrooms, they found a carousel of rising platforms. Romano jumped onto one and off to the next brick row, his brother in tow. As the former jumped once he was on the bricks, he hit something.

"What the hell…?" he said, looking up. "Was that block there before?"

Veneziano tried hitting the space next to it. Another block appeared the second the air was touched, this one slightly higher than its predecessor. Through trial and error, they discovered a small hill of blocks – the two they had discovered, one to the right of them and a space higher, and two blocks to the right of that, making it symmetrical.

"Well, at least we can reach that row now," said Romano, thoughtfully stroking his moustache until he realized what he was doing and stopped. He was referencing the row of three bricks that lay above one space, above the block hill.

Being the only one small enough to fit between the highest block and the row, Romano squeezed in and hit the middle brick. There was a noise not unlike a mushroom coming out of a box, as what had happened earlier.

But nothing came falling off of the edge. Veneziano leapt up the bricks and landed on top of the row. "It's some weird plant! I think it's a beanstalk!"

"A beanstalk?" Romano clambered over the edge and took a look, confirming his brother's words.

"Let's climb it, _fratello_!" Veneziano smiled. "Maybe this'll be like that story Jack and the Beanstalk!"

"…don't you remember what was at the top of the stalk?"

"Uh-huh! Sacks of gold, a hen that laid golden eggs, and a magic harp!"

"AND A GIANT, VENEZIANO!"

But Veneziano was already halfway up the beanstalk. Romano groaned and reluctantly followed him.

* * *

The two ended up in an open area. There were no trees, no bushes, no blocks, and no enemies. The only kind of landmark was a mushroom – several mushrooms, in fact – that were at least ten times the size of the ordinary ones. Romano attempted to bite into one and recoiled in pain.

"Ugh, it's so hard! Maybe we're supposed to jump on top of it or something."

Veneziano jumped on top of the mushroom and helped Romano up. They turned to see a row of floating coins.

"_Fratello_, they're coins! Like the kind we got in boxes earlier!"

"I know, let's just get them!"

They collected the money and jumped from one mushroom to the next, getting more coins on each platform. When they'd collected the last one, both of them stopped for a second. They looked at each other confusedly.

"Did you feel…?"

"Yeah, I did!"

"What was that? I feel better now… I mean, I was feeling fine before, but now I feel even better…"

"…I don't know… maybe if we collect more coins, we feel better?"

"…maybe."

* * *

The nations, still watching the Italian brothers play out the game from outside the television, looked at Japan for an explanation.

"You see," he said, "if a player collects one hundred coins, they gain an extra life. Since Italy-_san_ are playing together, the coin rule applies to both of them."

"So they now have another chance, basically?"

"_Hai_."

* * *

Meanwhile, the aforementioned brothers had found their way past the mushrooms onto a brick platform. Dropping to the other side, they found text identical to the Warp Zone that they had encountered earlier. Both smiled at their good fortune, looked at each other, and dropped into the pipe leading to World Eight.


	7. Invincible

Level one in World Eight looked just like the others at first glance. But upon advancing, the Italian brothers discovered a small shelled black thing with stubby legs creeping towards them, followed by evil mushrooms. Veneziano stomped on the black thing and kicked the shell towards the mushrooms, knocking them out. Both leapt over the ricocheting shell and continued, jumping over the pipe and the flower that came out of it, stomping on a few turtles, and hopping across narrow platforms.

Leaping over several more enemies (and collecting a few coins in the process) the brothers came upon a jumping turtle. They ran around for a minute, dodging it, until Romano had the sense to jump as high as he could and stomp it. When stomping it ridded the thing of its wings, it became a normal turtle. Veneziano stomped it into its shell – and unfortunately set it ricocheting back and forth between the two block structures they were in. It made Veneziano shrink down to Romano's size before they could escape.

After dodging a few more of the shelled reptiles, they came upon a row of bricks. None of them broke when hit, due to their small sizes, but one in the middle produced some kind of item. Romano scrambled up on top of the blocks and came down a moment later, chasing… a bouncing star?

"Gotcha," he growled, catching the star before it went over a cliff. The second he got a hold on it, the star dissolved into a shower of sparkles, which covered Romano. He started flashing between white and orange.

"Uwah! _Fratello_, what happened to you?" Veneziano cowered behind his hands.

"I don't know… I feel stronger somehow." Romano flexed his fingers. "Wait, do I hear... oh no. Is this fucking – IS THIS FUCKING THEME MUSIC?" Romano yelled angrily. "WHAT THE HELL?"

"Let's keep going, _fratello_…"

"Fine…" Romano jumped forward over a couple of small platforms and stomped on a turtle coming at him. But instead of sliding into its shell, it disappeared entirely.

"What…"

"Eek! Look out, _fratello_!"

"Eh?"

Romano looked up just as a second turtle touched him – but instead of killing the green-clad Italian, the turtle disappeared like the last one.

"This…" Romano looked down at the still-flashing colors. "This is great!"

He ran forward, charging through enemies and knocking them out of his way.

"Wait up, _fratello_!" Veneziano was puffing to keep up.

"Haha, never! This is awesome! This is—"

He stopped flashing and the theme music stopped playing. He looked down at himself… and back up at the turtle, which was coming for him.

"EEEE! HELP ME, VENEZIANO!"

Veneziano caught up with his brother and stomped the turtle, picking up the shell and tossing it over a cliff. "Are you okay, _fratello_?"

"Y… yeah… sorry for running ahead…"

"Aw, it's okay! I think we're almost there!"

Sure enough, after jumping over just a few more enemies, they reached a series of rising, narrow platforms. Just as he was about to reach the last one, Veneziano fell short and slipped into the cliff.

"AAA!" Romano reached out a hand, but it was too late. "VENEZIANOOO!"

"_FRATELLOOOO_!"

A minute later, Veneziano appeared back at the beginning of the series of platforms. He started crying almost immediately. Romano bounced down the blocks and ran to comfort him.

"_Fratello_, that – that was scaaaary!" He buried his face in Romano's white overalls and sobbed, getting tears and snot all over his clothes.

"Geez, _fratello_…" Romano awkwardly patted him on the back. When his brother had dried his tears, they moved on to the platforms, this time with Romano helping Veneziano. The flagpole was just beyond the last one, and they simultaneously grabbed onto it, advancing to the next level.

* * *

**I feel like I'm treating Romano pretty badly in this story, so he got a good item this time ^^**


	8. Cannon

World 8, Level 2, held a couple of new challenges. Just a few seconds into the level, Veneziano and his brother had to dodge a flying turtle by ducking under it and immediately jumping to the stair-like tower next to it, while dodging falling spiky things—

Wait.

They looked up to see none other than Germany, who caught sight of them and descended slightly in his cloud to talk with them, throwing the spiked creatures behind him all the while. Romano scowled.

"You sure there isn't some kind of button to turn those things off?"

"Yes," said Germany through gritted teeth, "I am sure. You're welcome to check it yourself."

Romano humphed, but he wasn't willing to look. His brother, meanwhile, asked Germany how he got there before them. Germany frowned.

"That… is a very good question. I have no idea, honestly. It was just a minute ago when I was in the first place that I met you two… and it seems like I just blinked and found myself here."

Veneziano looked nervous. "Uwah, scary!"

"It's a video game," his twin in green and white reasoned, "so I guess that your character, whoever or whatever the hell it was, was supposed to appear on different levels."

"…that may be true, but it doesn't make it any less bizarre for me."

"It's okay, Germany! I think we're almost done with the game!"

"I hope so."

The brothers turned back to their adventure and found a trampoline-like spring waiting for them at a small tower starting just before the ground. Veneziano played on it for a full five minutes, jumping up and down while giggling over and over, before following Romano underneath a row of floating bricks. When they emerged from the other side and looked up, Germany and his floating cloud were nowhere to be seen. They looked at each other nervously and carried on.

After passing a few more flying turtles, Veneziano and Romano found a strange black thing. It stuck straight out of the ground, a little bit taller than them. Examining it from the side, they found that on the top, two rounded sides stuck out slightly, while a skull mark adorned it near the bottom. The other side was identical. Romano was about to say something when a BANG emitted from the thing. Both jumped about five feet in the air as a dark thing with arms and eyes shot out of the – it must have been a cannon – cannon at a surprisingly slow speed. They stared at it as it moved on out of their view, and when it disappeared, another one shot out of the cannon. The Italian brothers looked at each other, scared.

"R-Romano… I think they're shooting at us…"

"Yeah…"

"W-What do we do, _fratello_?"

"Run."

"Okay!"

They took off like a shot, doing their best to stay above the cannon and all the others that came in their way – and there were a lot. Veneziano had made it to the tall towers that acted as a staircase to the flagpole when he looked back and realized that Romano was gone.

"_Fratello_! Where are—"

Romano appeared at the edge of the cliff behind his brother, having died from a slip with one of the strange pipe-flowers. When Veneziano reached him, he was wiping his face with his sleeve, trying not to show his tears. "Let's go," he growled.

They scrambled up the towers that made a path and reached the flagpole at last.

* * *

**America and Canada next chapter :D**

**Sorry for the short chapter this time :(**


	9. Hammers

**America and Canada, finally :'D**

* * *

Although they didn't know it, the Italian brothers had reached the penultimate level of the game. However, at the moment they were dodging bullets from a cannon that had met them very near from where they started this new level.

"Uwah! Another one!"

"Dammit! Don't they ever give up?"

Luckily, they passed that one. Unluckily, just past it was a jumping turtle and second cannon. Veneziano ducked underneath the firing point of the cannon while Romano took care of the turtle, tossing the shell well out of range of them. Then they jumped over the cannon, waiting until no bullets were being fired from the opening. One of the strange pipe-flowers was up ahead, and they jumped over that one rather awkwardly, but thankfully making it. And just past that was—

"America?" said Veneziano, surprised. "And America's brother?"

Canada waved. "Hi, Italy, Romano. You're here too? And my name's Canada."

Canada and his obnoxious brother were wearing two black, padded suits, a helmet, and a pack on their side, held in place by a belt-like thing. The pack held a hammer, which America took out and threw as he talked.

"Hi, dudes! You guys look cool!" He continued to take out the hammer and throw it, as it was replaced every time.

"America, can you please stop throwing those?" called Veneziano. "It might hit one of us, and if we're hit, we die!"

"No way! I can't stop!"

"Oh, no! Is it like with Germany and you can't stop because it'll overflow and hurt you and—"

"Um, actually," said Canada quietly, "he just got really excited when he found out that if you take a hammer out and throw it, one grows back in its place. He hasn't stopped throwing them since." Calling to his brother now, he said "Um, America? Could you stop throwing the hammers for just a minute?"

America grumbled, but he complied with Canada's request and climbed down to ground level.

"Thank you… now, eh, Italy, what was that about Germany?"

"Oh, Germany's here too!" said Veneziano happily. "Haven't you seen him?"

"No…"

"He's riding a cloud, and there're these big spiky things in the cloud, and if he stops throwing them, they keep growing in the cloud and start hurting him! So he has to throw them down!"

"The bastard almost killed us once."

"Romanoooo, he didn't mean to!"

America cleared his throat. "Um, how many more people are here? Is it just you guys, me and Mattie, and Germany?"

"Well… we thought it was just us… but then we saw Germany and you guys… so I don't know~!"

"Hm…" America thought. "Oh! What if you guys beat the game? Will everything go back to—"

"We figured that out already, burger bastard," said Romano.

"Aw."

"In that case… eh, shouldn't you two be on your way? Not to be rude…"

"Yeah, we should." Romano stood up and grabbed Veneziano's hand. "C'mon, _fratello_."

"Byyyye, America! Byyyye, America's brother!"

"I'm Canada…"

They jumped over a staircase with some difficulty, meeting a cannon on the other side. Jumping over that, they beat a jumping turtle, jumped over a four-block tower, jumped over another tower, and met...

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!?"

"Al, don't shout!"

America and Canada were back. America was looking completely freaked out and Canada was looking slightly unnerved. Veneziano and Romano stared.

"Weren't you two just over there?"

"Yeah, but now we're here and I'm fucking weirded out!"

"Al…"

"Oh!" Veneziano cried. "Did you guys just suddenly blink and find yourselves here?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay, 'cuz that's what happened to Germany!"

"Where's Germany now?" said Canada curiously.

"Oh, we don't know, he suddenly disappeared when we weren't looking," said Romano dismissively. America, upon hearing this, ran over to his brother and clung to him.

"MATTIE I DON'T WANNA DISAPPEAR DON'T LET GO OF ME EVER!"

"Al! Get off! I'm sure it'll be fine!"

"Yeah, it's okay! We'll beat the game soon! I bet we're reeeeally close!"

"Goddammit, I hope so," grumbled Romano.

They said their farewells to the American brothers and jumped over a strange pipe-flower blocking their way. But as soon as they made it over—

"WHAT THE HELL IT HAPPENED AGAIN!"

"Al, please keep your voice down…"

Once again, it seemed, the American brothers had unwillingly teleported ahead of the Italian brothers.

"Ugh, I'm not even going to bother," said Romano, moving past them. Veneziano followed him, glancing back at the hammer-bearing siblings.

Yet another strange pipe-flower was in their way, and after jumping over that—

"FUCK I'M DONE WITH THIS SHIT!"

"Al… oh, never mind…"

"SCREW YOU GUYS, WE'RE MOVING ON."

"_Fratello_! Don't be rude!"

"We're _leaving_, Veneziano!"

"O-Okay… bye, America! Bye, America's brother!"

The flagpole was just up ahead, so they grabbed onto it and walked into the rather large tower that awaited them. The final level was just up ahead.

* * *

**Two or three more chapters to go :)**


	10. Lava

**Whew, almost forgot to upload this one today :|**

* * *

"_Fratello_! It's really spooky in here!"

"I-I know, Veneziano! Dammit!"

The ones dressed as Mario and Luigi were inside a large castle. They faced a small flight of brick stairs, which sharply dropped off to a pool of red, thick-looking liquid. Climbing down to the step next to the last one, they looked at it nervously. It gave off a hot miasma.

"Veneziano," said Romano slowly and shakily, "don't freak out when I tell you this."

"W-What?"

"I think that's lava. Or magma, or whatever it's called."

"Eeek! Does that m-mean we're inside a volcano!?"

"I don't know! I don't fucking know!"

"You go first, Romano!"

"Goddammit…" Romano leapt across the pool of lava, making to the other side safely. He turned to his brother. "Veneziano, come on! It's fine!"

His brother backed up and took a leap over the pool, landing next to Romano. "Yay, I did it!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Moving past that, they jumped over two more strange pipe-flowers. Just beyond it were three mushrooms, all scuttling in a row. They stomped them into the ground as quickly as possible. Climbing a staircase, they saw another pool of lava – however, this one had a small, moving platform floating in it.

"I think we can jump on that, _fratello_!"

"Veneziano—"

Veneziano was already jumping. He landed safely on the platform and jumped off of _that_ to the other side. "Come oooon, Romanoooo!" he called. "It's okay!"

Luigi – er, Romano – followed suit. After passing the lava, they came upon yet another pipe-flower, the pipe of which Veneziano promptly fell in while trying to jump over it. Romano was forced to follow him, and both brothers popped out in a different place, apparently ahead of where they had been. They moved on to jump over another pipe-flower, two armadillos, pipe-flower, jumping turtle, and pipe-flower, at which point they had to jump over another pool of lava.

Seeing a pipe set in floating bricks above them, Romano attempted to reach it, hitting his head in the process (as a gift from the previously invisible block that had been there). The brothers jumped up on it and climbed into the pipe, finding themselves out in another place. The second they tried to keep going, fish started jumping out of nowhere, trying to get at them.

"Aah! Why the fucking hell are there fish flying!?"

"Maybe they're flying fish, Romano!"

"Those don't look like that! Dodge them, _fratello_!"

They did indeed dodge the fish, with some difficulty. Leaping over more lava, they entered the home of a pipe-flower – and found themselves in a strange place.

They had apparently come out underwater, with no air pockets. However, they soon found that they could breathe – but not talk. Whenever they tried to speak to each other, large bubbles came out of their mouths. Swimming through a short passageway, they saw a fireball chain spinning around in a circle. Both shouted – or tried to shout – at the fact that there was fire underwater. Sneaking around it, they found themselves facing a squid that seemed to be after them.

After much attempted shouting and swimming as fast as they possibly could, they reached a pipe and swam into it, coming out at the castle again. Both were soaking wet when they came out, and had to cough up a lot of water.

"Why—" Romano's unfinished question was interrupted by a coughing fit. "Why the hell was there water? And fire underwater? And fucking squids?"

"I don't know…" Veneziano spat more water on the ground. "Can we just keep going, _fratello_?"

Moving past a pipe-flower, they saw a familiar face.

"Uwah! America! Hi!"

America was there, still clad in the black outfit, still with a hammer pouch at his side. When he saw the Italians, he ran up and hugged them.

"America? What is it?"

"Get the fuck off me!"

"I'm so glad to see you guys…" whimpered America. "I've been here for like ten minutes and Mattie's not here…"

"Where's your brother?"

"I don't know!" America finally released them, much to Romano's relief. "Anyway… I think that you're almost done with this level. _Something's_ over there… not quite sure what..." he jerked his thumb to the area that was currently too high up for the brothers to see. "I can help you guys get up there if you want."

"Yay!"

America boosted them up one at a time. "Now go and get us the fuck out of here!"

"Yeah!"

Romano and Italy turned and saw another familiar face – however, this one was most unexpected.

"Aah!" Romano hid behind Veneziano. "W-What're you doing here!?"


	11. Princess

Russia smiled in a childlike way. "What am I doing here? I could ask you two the same question, дa?"

He was standing at the other end of a wide bridge that covered a pool of lava. He wore a turtle shell with spikes on the back and held two hammers, one in each hand – they resembled the ones that America had thrown, but much larger. Behind him, not on the bridge, was a wall blocking up the place and a shining gold axe resting in front of it.

"It's strange," continued Russia, examining the hammers, "I seem to have simply woken up here, wearing this odd thing, and holding these hammers. It seems we are in the video game that little Japan made, дa? And another unusual thing…" he suddenly tossed one of the hammers into the lava below, letting it sink below the surface. "If I toss one of these away… another one appears in its place."

Sure enough, another hammer of identical size and shape popped into view in Russia's large hand. He smiled. "Think about it… unlimited weapons. Who knows what possible real-life applications this could have for crushing your enemies?"

The Italies were trembling, both trying to hide behind the other. Russia looked up at them. "And I must say that you two look just _adorable_ with those moustaches."

Romano self-consciously covered his upper lip. "L-L-L-Look," he stuttered, successfully hiding behind his brother, "V-Veneziano and I think that we have to beat the game to get us all back to normal…"

"'Us all'?" Russia tilted his head. "There are others?"

"Y-Yeah, America and America's brother and Germany and that's all we've seen and you and us and we think that's all and you know _fratello_ just said that we have to beat the game to get back to normal so maybe you could let us pass _por favore_?"

When Veneziano was scared, he tended to babble. Romano glared at him and whispered "Shut up, Veneziano!"

"Sorry _fratello_ but I'm scared and I can't stop talking when I'm scared oh I hope we get out of here soon I want to eat pasta before I die oh no we're gonna die aren't we we're gonna diiiiie—"

"_Shut up_!"

He finally fell silent, though was shaking slightly. Russia looked at them innocently. "You two said something about beating the game?"

"Y-Yeah," said Romano, trying to seem confident. "S-So to beat the game, we need to destroy this bridge… and… don't hurt me, but I think we have to make you fall with the bridge…"

"So," said Russia, advancing towards them, "you're saying that you have to… _kill_ me to get us back to normal… дa?"

"Y-Y-Y-Yeah." Romano shook at having Russia so close to him, but remained standing. Meanwhile, Veneziano hugged him from behind, shaking as well.

"I see…" Russia smiled. "Well, now, what are you two waiting for?" He stepped aside, leaving them a clear path to the axe. They stared at him.

"But you'll fall in too," protested Veneziano. As much as he was scared of Russia, he didn't like seeing anyone getting hurt.

"It will be all right," said Russia calmly. "General Winter will protect me."

A rumbling came from the air above them and it was marginally colder in the room all of a sudden. The Italies shivered and, with a glance back at Russia, reached the axe. They stared at it.

"I don't wanna do it! You do it, _fratello_!"

"F-Fine!" Romano took up the axe and swung it down quickly (it was fairly heavy) towards the bridge. The axe cut straight through the bridge and the entire thing collapsed into the lava. Russia fell with it, but just before he hit the molten rock, a cushion of snow and ice came together underneath him, supporting him in the air. He smiled up at the Italies, who nervously smiled back (more out of fear than anything else) and turned to the place behind them, where the wall had disappeared.

"That was a really crappy bridge," said Romano as they hopped down from the ledge onto a concrete floor.

"_Fratello_," said Veneziano, "I think that's the princess."

Up ahead, there was a figure with blonde hair, a small crown, and a pink-and-white dress. The figure was turned away from them and something sounded like crying. The mustachioed Italians carefully approached the crowned figure. Romano placed a hand on one shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay, pretty lady," he said, smiling. "We're here to save you! We beat the last guy! Now c'mon, stop crying, princess!"

The figure turned around and smiled. "Oh, you're here to rescue me? Thank goodness! I was so worried that I would be trapped here forever!"

Romano leapt back in horror and stared at the face of who he had thought was the princess. Blue eyes. Blond hair. The beginnings of a beard.

"Uwah! Big brother France!" cried Veneziano happily. "Why do you have a dress on?"

"I'm not sure…" said France pensively. "I simply woke up like this, in this horrible place. I was becoming very distressed, so thank you for coming!"

"Good God," moaned Romano. "Take that fucking dress off, you fucking pervert!"

France shrugged and started to remove the dress.

"NO WAIT I CHANGED MY MIND! DON'T TAKE IT OFF!"

"Fine…" France let the bottom of the dress fall back to the floor. "Now how are we going to get out of here?"

"Ooh! I have an idea!" Veneziano clapped his hands. "How about we hold hands?"

"Couldn't hurt," muttered France, taking one of Veneziano's hands. He looked at Romano. "Come on, Roma!"

Romano swallowed and reluctantly took one of France's hands, shuddering. The second he did, there was a bright light…

* * *

**One more chapter~!**


	12. Waking

Back in Japan's living room, the nations watched as Veneziano, Romano, and France took each other's hands. The screen was enveloped in a bright white light – most of the nations had to squint or cover their eyes. When it faded, the TV and game system turned off. Japan rose and turned on the game system. It turned on normally, as did the TV when he tried that as well. The game came on the screen as it would usually, and when Japan tested out the controllers, they worked fine as well. He turned off both the system and TV.

"Oi," said England, "shouldn't we check on those who were in the game? Perhaps they've woken by this point."

He rose to do what he'd suggested, but as he did, seven tired nations came down to the living room: Italy, Romano, Germany, America, Canada, France, and Russia. All looked as if they had just woken up.

Italy stretched and smiled at everyone. "Oh… hi, you guys! I had a really weird dream… and I slept for a long time…"

Romano frowned. "Hey, why is everyone down here? Were you playing the video game?"

Japan spoke. "Do you not remember, Romano-_kun_?"

"Remember what now?"

"You all—" China gestured to the just-haven woke nations. "—you all were in the video game-aru! Italy and Romano, you two were Mario and Luigi-aru!"

"Russia-_san_, I think you were Bowser," said Japan quietly.

"Germany, you were that Lakitu guy!"

"America and… you, you two were the Hammer Brothers…"

"And France," ended England, shuddering, "you were the princess."

The nations mentioned looked at each other in shock. "So…" said America, "that dream was real? That's SO COOL! Except for the part where we kept teleporting, and then Mattie was gone…"

"Where _did_ you go, Al?"

"Inside this fucking weird castle with lava and shit. Hey, Italy, Romano, what happened when you guys left?"

"We saw Russia! He was wearing a weird spiked shell, and—and—"

"I fell with the bridge in order to let them pass. However, General Winter protected me."

"And then we saw… France. Wearing a pink fucking dress."

"I'll have you know that the dress was very comfortable!"

"Germany! Germany! Where'd you go when Romano and I went under the bricks?"

"It seems there was some barrier preventing me from going further than that."

"Well!" said America suddenly. "I think this calls for a party! A 'We-Beat-the-Game' party!"

"Yay! Party!"

"Japan, you have snacks, right?" America turned towards the older nation hopefully.

"I… I… think so…"

"Sweet!"

For the next hour or so, brunch was served while the nations questioned those who had been in the game – Japan especially, asking questions about the experience of dying (which set both of the Italies crying), exactly what had occurred, etc. Apparently he seemed to be considering developing virtual technology video games.

But when he mentioned this, the ones who were in the game shook their heads. Based on their experiences, it just didn't seem like a good idea for now.

* * *

~Fin~

* * *

**Done and done! **

**Here's an alternate scene:**

When it faded, the TV and game system turned off. Japan rose and turned on the game system. It moaned, aroused, and then Japan fucked it while the others watched in horror.

**I'm sorry, but when I checked the thing that said "...turned on the game system.", I just went... "Turned on. :3"**

**Story's done! Thank you for all your support, minna-sama~!**


End file.
